Do you need a high end phone to have a good camera?

Staff MemberRescue Squad

After seeing this article by Android Authority I found myself amazed at some of the unknown names (at least for us in the states) that are competing with our bigs. This made me ask the question, if we were to take the names off the back of the phones and go by performance how would we rate them and which phones would we own?

Premium Member

There are some Asian manufactures that are sleepers. They have been providing high end Flagships for some time.
One that impressed me is Nubia. I never heard of them until I came across this video. The vid is in Chinese but we can certainly appreciate the Nubia interactive frame technology.

Staff MemberRescue Squad

There are some Asian manufactures that are sleepers. They have been providing high end Flagships for some time.
One that impressed me is Nubia. I never heard of them until I came across this video. The vid is in Chinese but we can certainly appreciate the Nubia interactive frame technology.

​

Click to expand...

This is what the Samsung Edge devices want to be! Wow.

I think you're right though PC. For the prices we pay for these devices, even when bought on contract/etc, we tend to go with names we know.

If you're spending a few hundred dollars, it just feels more secure to go with a brand that you're familiar with.

Premium Member

There are some Asian manufactures that are sleepers. They have been providing high end Flagships for some time.
One that impressed me is Nubia. I never heard of them until I came across this video. The vid is in Chinese but we can certainly appreciate the Nubia interactive frame technology.

​

Click to expand...

Well one of the main reasons we have such inexpensive products here in the US and elsewhere is the ability of China to complete at an extremely low manufacturing cost when compared to just about all other countries. This does result however in some very poorly manufactured products, in knock-offs that underperform, and in very low entry level products that may look like higher end devices but can't come close.

But what cheap manufacturing has done to cut costs on imported products has not yet bled into the big guys. You'd think that by now prices of the flagship phones would be considerably lower. Instead what's happened is the big manufacturers are pocketing the unusually high margins they can now generate by using that cheap labor for their own manufacturing. Just look at the incredible products they report.

We as the consumers unfortunately help them to perpetuate this because we continue to pay the high prices and don't look to those lower price point products because we are so demanding of top tier performance. Once the competitors get closer in performance then perhaps we will see prices of the big manufacturers come down.

Apple products are to blame, they make people stupid. They charge 5x for same technology that no brand name charges 2x. I've yet to spend more then $300 for top of the line phone, be it Motorola, samsung, Sony or lg, but I shop like nobodies business. People swear by Brand name but majority are clueless to what's on the inside, how it's made or where it's made.

Build quality is another stupid excuse some fools use to justify wasting money because they are not an educated consumer. Most of this electro garbage is made in the same factory in China and your 700$ build quality is no different then someone's $200. Sure you have fancy aluminum or glass back but it won't make your phone work better or last longer, on contrary actually.

When world's leading phone costs $200 to manufacture and people pay 1k for it in the store, I can't wait for China to flood American market with their cheap devices.

Staff MemberRescue Squad

There is another element in that American and other hi tech countries are first to do the r&d to get the tech out. So for the first few years the Apples and Motorola are putting out ideas and working out the kinks. Once it is figured out you get another company that reverse engineers the product substituting with cheaper materials. Much of your cost added to Apple, Samsung, and other high end devices are the addition of the r&d costs as well as marketing. Take away both and a company can afford to charge $200 for a phone and still make out.